The Norwegian
by Josman
Summary: AU. What if Gary hadn't pulled the trigger at the start of John Carpenter's film? How might events have gone differently.
1. Outpost 31

**Disclaimer: I have yet to assimilate anyone who owns The Thing, therefore I don't own it yet.**

_If you're Norwegian, The Thing is about a heroic alien hunter who gets tragically shot down by the people he was trying to protect. _\- Cracked

* * *

**Chapter 1: Outpost 31**

Lars peered forlornly through his binoculars. Somehow the creature that was impersonating his dog had escaped his view in the mountains. The survival of millions of people depended on him finding a dog in 14,000,000 square kilometres. His head throbbed from recent events and colour spots kept appearing before his eyes but he fought to remain focused. Matias was unaware of the thing's existence and almost certainly wouldn't carry on the chase without him.

The Norwegian struggled to remember his search and rescue training. The best way to find someone was to think what you would do in their circumstances. He pondered this. The thing would need shelter and fresh victims or it would freeze again. Logically, it could head back to its ship but it was running in the wrong direction.

_"Matias."_ He said. _"What's the nearest base?"_

_"Well... that would be the American camp. Just north-west."_

_"Then fly there, quickly!"_

* * *

By some strange bit of luck, they found the dog again, barely a mile from the camp. At Lars's instruction, the pilot made several more strafing runs, but this was quickly given up as futile. Though he hit the creature a few times, it would always repair the damage before Matias could bring the vehicle round for him to drop the thermite charges. Instead, he ordered him to land at the camp, and cut it off at the pass.

Matias, unfamiliar with Outpost 31's layout, was forced to circle the camp twice before he found the helipad. He'd wanted to radio ahead, but he'd needed both hands to manoeuvre with and so was forced to land by eye with no guidance from the Americans. Next to him, his friend was looking increasingly frustrated that they weren't down already and so he forced himself to rush the landing, feeling the chopper bounce and skip as he did so. His instructor in Trondheim would have been thrown him out if he'd seen that.

Stepping from the cab, Lars snatched a thermite charge from the box and pulled the pin, however, as he drew his hand back to throw, the charge slipped through his damp fingers and landed in the snow by the helicopter.

_"Get away!"_ He shouted. Any soldier knows that trying to throw a grenade back is the fastest way to get yourself blown up. Sadly, Matias wasn't a soldier and knew no such thing. The pilot charged forward in a foolhardy attempt to save the helicopter. The charge promptly ignited, vaporising the man and taking the chopper with it.

Having woken to find his camp in ruins and everyone gone, Matias's death had little effect on Lars's mind, particularly when he had to warn the five or so confused-looking Americans about the shape-shifting alien that was running up and licking one of their faces.

_"Get away from that!" _He shouted. _"It's not a dog, it's some sort of... thing! It's impersonating a dog!"_ The Americans just looked at him blankly. _"It's not real!"_ He screamed. But still they showed a frustrating inability to understand Norwegian. _"Idiots!"_ He screamed, shouldering his rifle and resuming firing. Sadly, the dog-thing ducked at the last second and the bullet struck one of the men in the leg. The rest scrambled for cover.

Lars marched past them and went after the dog-thing as it made its way into the camp. He wasn't sure what he planned to do next, but giving up certainly wasn't the answer.

* * *

Smashing through the third and last pane of glass protecting the rec room, Garry took careful aim out the window, he hoped the intruder would come a bit closer so he could aim for a non-vital spot, from this range he couldn't be selective. Sadly, if the man brought his gun to bear again, he would be forced to just shoot and hope.

The commander abruptly lowered his gun as he spotted MacReady tailing the man. Garry had long been of the opinion that the pilot had a subconscious death wish. Fortunately, their visitor was so absorbed in whatever he was doing that he failed to notice, until Mac smacked him across the back of the head with his bottle of J and B. The Norwegian dropped like a stone.

Mac had spilled some of the drink in his attack "What a waste." He muttered, watching it seep into the snow.

* * *

The base's medical centre had never seen so much activity. In the corner, Norris was patching up Benning's leg. Copper, meanwhile, was tending to their visitor.

"Mac didn't actually hit him that hard." Said the doctor. "But I don't think it's the only time he's been knocked out recently." He pointed to a second lump hidden by the man's hair.

"Suppose that's what drove him crazy?" Said Bennings.

"Or he was crazy anyway and someone at the Norwegian camp tried to subdue him." Copper shrugged.

Garry was leafing through the pockets in the man's coat. Finding some tools, a dog whip, some bullets (but no gun) and, most helpfully, a small wallet with some ID. "Lars Jans Bolen, Norwegian." He read aloud. "By the looks of things, he was the dog's keeper."

"Seems he wasn't doing a very good job." Said Clark.

"Suppose it was a disease carrier of some kind?" Fuchs suggested.

"Already checked." Said Clark. "No rabies or anything I could find. It seems to be healthy."

Copper, meanwhile was filling a syringe with something.

"What's that for?" Said Garry.

"Getting knocked out's more dangerous than it looks in films." The doctor explained. "If he wakes up now it could kill him. I'll have to sedate him for a little while."

"I need to talk to him." Said Garry.

"You can talk to him in 5 hours or so. Don't know how much sense you'll get out of him. In the meantime, I'd like to check out his camp, see if anyone else is hurt."

"In this whether?" Said Childs.

"Winds are gonna let up a tad in the next few hours." Said Bennings. "Can't condone it much myself, but it is a short hop. an hour there and an hour back."

"Just keep Lars somewhere comfortable while I'm gone." Said Copper.

"Right." Said Garry. "Someone help me move him to a spare room. Childs, move all the sharp objects out and put a bolt on the door. I don't want him wandering round camp when we're not paying attention."

* * *

As the camp sat idle, waiting for Macready and Copper to return, Clark was wandering down to fetch something from his room. Walking past the room they'd dumped Lars in, he found the Norwegian dog pawing at the door. He smiled. It was both sweet and sad that the dog would still want to get back to its owner, even if he had spent the day trying to shoot it.

"Come on boy." Clark said, gently taking the creature by its collar. "I don't think you want to be going in there right now." The dog seemed to resist for a moment, before yielding to his guide and following him away.

* * *

With Macready and Copper's expedition to the Norwegian camp having found more questions than answers, Garry had every reason to feel frustrated. He was further annoyed when he stepped into the radio room and found Windows snoozing in his chair. He twisted some dials, sending a high pitched squeal through his headphones.

"Did you reach anybody yet?" He growled.

"Reach anybody? We're a thousand miles from no-where man. And it's gonna get a hell of a lot worse before it gets any better!" Windows groaned.

"Well, never mind. Have you been listening to those tapes?"

"Tapes?"

"_Teach Yourself Norwegian_." He'd had the tapes ordered in soon after the Norwegians had started constructing their camp. Since they were the only other people within easy travelling distance, it had seemed sensible for his radio operator to learn some of their language in case of emergencies.

"Er... yeah." Said Windows. Though he had listened to them, it had all seemed like red tape. Most Norwegians spoke English, and the few times he'd had to contact the Thule Station, he'd spoken to some British guy anyway.

"Well our visitor's waking up. I may need a translator."

Windows suddenly regretted not being more honest.

* * *

Lars was woken by the sensation of someone sponging his forehead. He opened his eyes to find a handful of strangers gathered by his bedside, the rest of the camp was gathered in the hallway, listening in.

The middle aged man asked him something in English. Lars simply shook his head. The man looked to a man in sunglasses stood behind him.

_"Good morning. I is Windows."_ Said the man. _"That is Garry. Boss. That is Copper. Doctor. That is Nauls. Baker. He owns food for yours."_

The cook offered Lars something in a bowl. It occurred to him how hungry he was, but he had trouble trusting the food. _"Open your mouth."_ He mumbled.

"What?" Said Nauls.

_"Open your mouth."_ He repeated. He pointed to his own, opening it wide.

"I... think he wants you to open your mouth." Said Windows.

Nauls complied and Lars peered in. Whatever he saw seemed to satisfy him and he began spooning stew into his mouth. Looking around, he supposed that wasn't the best way to make an impression.

The Americans were looking to Windows now. The radio man gulped and said _"We... would like... to have... why you... er..."_ He didn't know the Norwegian for "shot at" so he pretended to fire an invisible rifle. _"us."_

Lars thought for a long time. He remembered how everyone had responded when Kate had first told them about the creature. And she'd been able to speak their language. He tried to think of a way of explaining it that wouldn't sound crazy. _"We found an animal, under the ice..."_

_"Slow!"_ Said Windows, looking through his Norwegian phrasebook. _"Don't know "ice"?"_

Lars simply pointed to the snow outside the window. Most of them seemed to know what he'd meant.

_"There was some disease, alive in it..."_

_"Disease?"_ Windows interrupted again.

Lars groaned in frustration. Somehow, humanity was about to be doomed by one man who'd failed to study foreign languages properly. He took a deep breath, knowing that he had a lot of misunderstanding to make up for at this point and couldn't lose his temper. _"Sickness. Illness. Infection."_ He mimed coughing and spluttering to illustrate his point. _"It affects people's minds."_

_"Minds?"_

_"Brain."_ He tapped his skull. It occurred to him that, if these people thought he was crazy, all these mimes weren't going to help. _"The dog was carrying it."_

_"Don't know "dog"?"_

Lars's patience finally snapped and he tried to snatch the book off Windows, shouting furiously as he did so. At this point, Gary pulled out his Magnum again and Lars, sensibly, sat down.

Without anyone having to say anything, it became apparent that the interview was over. The crew filed out and locked the door behind them.

"Did you catch any of what he was saying at the end?" Said Gary.

"He was talking too fast." Said Windows. "He kept talking about a thing..."

"You need to be more specific."

"No. That's exactly what he said. He said the thing killed them. The thing's in the... hund." At this point, he finally found the right point in the dictionary. "Hey, that means dog!"

"I thought you'd agreed to try to learn their language!" Said Blair.

"Yey! I don't see any of you guys translating!" Windows snapped.

"So what we got?" Said Macready.

"Either his friends went mad and killed each other and that drove him mad, he went crazy and killed them, or... he's telling the truth and they got attacked by some brain parasite." Copper shrugged. "Either way, we'll probably never find out. We can only lock him up 'till we can move him out."

"In the meantime," said Macready, "Clark, you should probably quarantine the dog, just to be safe."

"Yeah, ok." Clark shrugged. "There's a crate I can put him in, just across from the main kennel."

"Then do that."

* * *

Lars, meanwhile was looking round the room, in search of some means of getting out. The Americans were clearly never going to believe him. If he was to stop this creature, he was going to have to do it himself.

* * *

**Author's notes: I doubt anyone at the base spoke Norwegian, but I need a translator for the purposes of the story and Windows does seem like the most likely.**


	2. Things From Other Worlds

**Chapter 2: Things From Other Worlds**

Clark had emptied out the largest crate in the kennel, and now placed the Norwegian dog in it. He supposed it was probably a bad idea to put it in the same pen as the pack straight away anyway. Putting them across the room from each other would give them time to get to know each other's scent before he introduced them properly.

That taken care of, he went to feed the rest of the dogs. As he did so, the newcomer squeezed itself as far back into the crate as it could, keen to keep out of sight of the dogs for the time being.

* * *

Lars, meanwhile, was scouring the room he'd been dumped in for some means of escape.

His first thought was the window, but that was quickly dismissed. It would take a lot of effort to break through three panes of glass, and it was too much to hope that none of the Americans would hear. They'd probably even tie him up for letting all the heat out of the base.

He looked over the door. Locked on the far side of course. But it opened inwards, giving him access to the hinges. Proper prison cells were rarely found in Antarctic bases for obvious reasons.

All he needed was an improvised screwdriver. Though he scoured the assorted junk which littered every room in the station, he couldn't find anything pointy and strong enough to tamper with the hinges. The Americans had been too thorough in that respect.

But he did have the spoon he'd been given to eat with. It wasn't strong enough to tamper with the door either, but it was sufficient to undo some of the loose bolts on the bed frame. He retrieved them, along with some of the washers. Then, using a bit of wood as a hammer, he knocked a washer into each hinge, lifting up the pin slightly.

From there, he just had to wait for the opportune moment. He didn't want to break out when there were still people in the corridors to catch him. He couldn't take on the whole base, especially if the thing had got to any of them... He tried not to think about that possibility.

After what seemed like hours with his ear pressed to the door, he heard silence in the corridors. At the same time, Macready was firing up the snow plough outside. That would provide covering noise. He pulled the pins out of the hinges and pulled the door round, twisting the lock out of the wall.

He squeezed through the gap and leaned the door against the frame behind him.

Having got out, his next problem was where to find a weapon. Ideally, he'd need a flamethrower, but he knew that not many bases kept them. Thermite and dynamite were a possibility, but they would probably be hard to find and he didn't have long. His best bet was simply a bucket of kerosene.

* * *

Though the thing had done its best to hide its scent, the dogs were becoming aware of this creature across the room from them and began to bark at it. The creature hissed back and began to morph where it stood, pouring it's body mass into several snake-like tentacles, which slithered through the gaps in the crate, across the gap and through the mesh in the dog's cage.

Chanuck, the lead dog, rushed forward and bit one of the tentacles, ripping out a chunk of flesh, before squealing in pain as the chunk began to claw at the inside of his mouth.

* * *

Lars found a bucket and a flare in one of the storerooms. Now all he needed was fuel. That meant wandering over to one of the barrels that were kept outside. He peered out the window, Macready seemed to have nearly finished clearing and compacting the snow on the walkways so he shouldn't have to wait long.

Sure enough, Mac parked up a few minutes later and went to one of the other entrances.

Lars pulled a spare coat from the rack and went over to the nearest fuel barrel to fill his bucket.

The only problem now was where to find the dog? The kennel seemed like the most likely place, but where was it?

A furious series of barks and yelps answered his question and Lars raced in that direction.

* * *

Clark had heard the barking long before the Norwegian and gone to investigate. By the time he got there, very little of the thing was left in the crate, instead, a series of tentacles spread across the floor, towards the dog cage. The dog handler instinctively grabbed a fire axe from the wall and hacked through the creature with it.

The creature now seemed to see him as a threat and some of the tentacles came after him. He whacked them several more times with the axe but they just kept coming as he backed away. Where he chopped through one, two would come after him. He was beginning to feel like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. Finally, he just fled the room and slammed the door behind him.

"I don't know what's in there." He said as Mac and Gary came running. "But it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is."

At the same time, Lars was approaching from the other door. He thought for a moment about just torching the place, but decided to wait. Let the Americans see what they were up against for themselves.

Nonetheless, he needed to do something so he released the catch on the dog's cage to let them out. Unfortunately, the surviving dogs all charged out at once, toppling him over. The kerosene bucket spilled everywhere, while the unlit flare flew out of his hand and got lost in the darkness.

Palmer, Copper and Blair came in through the same door Lars had. Spotting the Norwegian loose, Palmer jumped to conclusions and raised the fire extinguisher to knock him out again, before Copper grabbed his arm to stop him, shouting "Palmer no!"

An unearthly scream ahead caught their attention and they saw that the clump of tentacles that had attacked Clark had formed into something with more solid mass. It was hard to say what it looked like since it didn't resemble any creature that's ever walked the Earth, more a rough fusion of half eaten animal cutlets. The four of them scurried away, with the thing in hot pursuit, until a shotgun blast stopped it in its tracks.

Macready and Gary burst in and unloaded all their ammunition into the creature, it didn't kill it but it slowed it down. As everyone who could snatched some kind of weapon, the thing beat a retreat, joining up with the main mass in the kennel.

Mac hurriedly slammed the door and shone his light in, revealing a kennel littered with tentacles wrapped around half-dissolved dogs. In the centre, a pile of tentacles seemed to be forming into a solid lump, with a dog's head, but arms, eyes and bones sticking out at odd angles. They each wished they still had some ammunition left for it.

As the group watched in horrified fascination, Childs raced into the room. Lars was pleased to see that the outpost did indeed have flamethrowers. He was less pleased when Childs promptly stood right where he'd spilled the kerosene earlier. He hurriedly grabbed the man's arm.

Childs wheeled the flamethrower round to point at the Norwegian, but noticed that he was pointing at the ground shouting "_Kerosene!_" Which, fortunately, is "Paraffin!" In Norwegian. He spotted the pool of fuel at his feet and leapt aside, just as the thing struck at him with what looked like a flower of flesh, missing the mechanic by inches.

The thing hauled itself forward, smashing the doorway as it did so. But it landed right in the kerosene pool, making the burst of flame Childs supplied all the more effective. The thing lit up in a second and collapsed to the ground in a few seconds more.

As Palmer and Blair sprayed the creature with CO2, several of the Americans turned their weapons on Lars. "I think you've got some explaining to do." Said Childs.

* * *

The team had crowded round the autopsy table as Blair dissected the remains of the thing. To one side of the room Lars was scribbling down a written statement for Windows to translate. They'd decided it would be too slow to do it verbally.

As he wrote, he listened to Blair's analysis. His words meant nothing to him but the man did seem to know what he was doing. At any rate, this collection of mutilated dog and alien parts, fused together by tendrils should be enough to let them know what was going on.

"So this thing turned itself into a dog, ran over here, and snuck around all day?" Said Gary.

"About right." Said Blair.

"So how do we know that it's impersonated a Norwegian at the same time?" Clark squinted at Lars.

"He tried to stop the dog." Said Fuchs. "And he stopped Childs burning himself."

"He tried to stop it with a gun." Said Blair. "We saw in the kennel that bullets are just a minor annoyance to it. Perhaps he's just trying to gain our trust?"

"I'm sure impersonating a person is more complicated." Said Copper, though he hoped it was true rather than knowing. Since they didn't know Lars, they had no reason to believe he wasn't an impersonation. None of them were sure what to do with him at this point.

"I've finished translating." Said Windows. He looked down at the literal translation he'd scribbled down. "_About a week ago, we found something in ice, which we believe is a space ship. I can take you to prove it if you want to. We picked out a frozen body from the site for analysis. But the thaw out and attack the base. It can imitate some living. But it can not replicate _there's a word here I couldn't find_ things. We spent some hours trying to find out who was a demon. I applied two of monsters that had gone by when someone knocked me out. When I came around, the base was in ruins and the other was dead. _Couple more words I don't know_ landed at the same time that I found your dog-things in the wreckage so I chased it out across the ice._"

"I think showing us would help." Macready nodded.

* * *

For the second time in as many days, Macready found himself trying to pilot the chopper through a fierce snowstorm. This time, the extra weight was increasing his problem. Next to him, Norris was reading the map. In the rear seats, Lars and Windows were accompanying them in case the Norwegian had anything more to say. From an empty shelf in the hold, Palmer was pointing a shotgun at the back of Lars's head, in case their suspicions about him proved correct. Most of them had a gun, and Mac had hidden a stick of dynamite up his sleeve as an extra precaution.

"How far now?" He asked.

Norris looked up from his nervous glances at the pilot's sleeve. "About half a mile, due east."

In the back seat, Lars spotted the crater below. That was odd. When he'd been here before, this had been an underground chasm, not an open crater. Coming closer, he could see that the ship was much more wrecked than before. Once again, he could feel the gears turning in his head. Someone must have been here since he'd last visited. Indeed, he now remembered finding two of the Snowcats missing when he'd woken up. But surely the thing would only need one? That meant someone must have pursued it. And that might just mean...

He looked at the map Norris was looking at, then at the ground below. He tapped Macready on the shoulder and said something in Norwegian.

Windows was getting better at the translations, the longer he was doing it. It took less than a minute for him to say "I think he wants you to land on the far side."

Macready shrugged and adjusted his flight accordingly. As they flew in closer, they spotted the edge of a ridge that had been obscured in the blank whiteness. Macready carefully brought the helicopter down between it and the edge of the crater.

The pilot stepped out and starred at the wrecked spaceship below. There was no mistaking it. No-one could have created anything this big as a hoax. Aliens were real. And they'd nearly been killed by one.

To their surprise, when Lars stepped out, he moved in the direction away from the spacecraft. They followed him and found his staring at a couple of abandoned vehicles, along with a small collection of other equipment below. Presumably left by the other Norwegians. It didn't seem too remarkable to them, but they could see that Lars was keen to investigate.

"He'll try to escape." Said Palmer.

"Escape to where?" Said Macready. "There's nothing to see for a thousand miles. He'll freeze again before he gets anywhere. Windows, go with him. Norris, with me."

As the pilot went to investigate the spaceship, Lars abseiled down to the two abandoned snowcats. Above him, Windows was clearly struggling with the abseiling (despite Macready's careful instruction) and cursing all the way. " JÃŠvla idiot." Lars muttered, wishing just about anyone else could have been assigned to translate for him.

Naturally, he reached the bottom long before the American and went to investigate on his own. The first vehicle was burnt out, with a husk of ash in the driver's seat. Since there seemed to be nothing alive in there, he proceeded to the second. What he found there amazed him.

Windows reached the bottom, just as Lars was removing something from the snowcat. He supposed that must be why he'd come down here: To retrieve something. As he came closer, he realised that Lars was carrying a human figure. A human figure that seemed to be breathing.

Windows rushed back to the ropes. "Palmer, lower a stretcher! We've got a survivor!"

* * *

**Author's notes: I know it's taken me a while to update. Original stories generally require more thought than novelisations.**

**Exactly how she can still be there after two and a bit days will be explained in the next chapter.**


	3. Survivors

**Chapter 3: Survivors**

Even in death, Sander hadn't finished finding ways to make Kate's life hard.

Upon leaving Carter-thing to burn to death in the one snowcat, she'd moved over to the one Sander-thing had arrived in, only to discover that it had punctured the fuel tank upon arriving, presumably in case anyone wanted to use the fuel against it.

For two days, she'd been huddled up in the cab, desperately clinging to life. What fuel was left in her flamethrower, she'd used to melt a little water to stave off dehydration, but it wasn't quite enough. Malnourishment and exhaustion had taken their toll and her mind had left reality to recount the nightmares she'd seen over and over.

Though they'd put her in one of the warmer rooms in the station, it was several hours before Copper could encourage her into a lucid state.

The first thing she did, upon seeing this strange man standing by the bed was whimper and crawl for the far side. The sudden pain from her frostbitten extremities ensured that she'd stay awake.

Copper could guess what was frightening her. "Look, if you're worried about that thing, don't worry. We got it. Burnt it to a crisp when it broke into the kennel. We rescued you from that snowcat earlier today. You're in an American research camp, not far from where you were."

"Open your mouth." Was all Kate replied with.

Lars having insisted on peering into people's mouths whenever he could, Copper wasn't too surprised. He opened wide and Kate squinted at his teeth.

She breathed a sigh of relief. "If anyone doesn't have fillings keep an eye on them. It can't replicate inorganic matter."

Kate had to pause for breath at the length of the last sentence. "You're week from malnourishment." Copper explained. "And the frostbite's thawing out. You'll have to stay in bed for a couple of days. I'll get Nauls to make some stew. Don't worry, he had fillings. Lars already approved."

She shook her head. "No. I have to talk to everyone. They don't know what they're dealing with." She paused for a moment. "Wait, Lars?"

"Yeah, he came charging into camp yesterday morning. He was trying to shoot some dog your creature took over." He winced. If they'd known what the dog could do, they'd probably have helped.

Kate tried to haul herself into a seated position. Intense pain shot up her defrosting arm and she collapsed back. Clearly, she was in no state to fight this creature. "Talk to Lars." She said. "He's the only other one who's dealt with it before."

"Ok." Copper said. "But there's nothing left to deal with. We got that thing. It's finished."

"You can't know that." She said, sinking back into the bed. "You can never know that."

"Try to get some rest." Said Copper. "I'll go and make sure Nauls's teeth are still unhealthy." The girl suddenly looked alarmed again. "And we'll make sure no-one without fillings comes in here."

* * *

In the rec room, the Americans were looking over the fragments of spaceship Norris had brought back. "It's not any metal I know." He said. "Could be some of the newer alloys. Could be nothing like we have on Earth."

"I simply don't believe any of this voodoo bullshit." Said Childs.

"Happens all the time Childs." Said Palmer. "They're falling out of the skies like flies. Government knows all about it, right Mac?"

"So let me get this straight." Said Gary. "100,000 years ago, this thing crashes. The Norwegians get ahold of it. They dig it up..."

"Yes Gary, they dig it up. They cart it back. It wakes up, probably not in the best of moods. What do you want from me? Ask Lars. Or ask Kate when she's conscious."

They looked at Lars, who was sat in one of the armchairs. Sadly, the questions were coming faster than Windows could translate.

"How does it wake up after thousands of years?" Said Childs.

"And how does it look like a dog?" Said Bennings.

"I don't know. 'cos it's different from us. 'cos it's from outer space. What do I know. Ask them!" Growled Macready.

"Are you buying any of this Blair?" Childs asked the base's biologist.

Blair didn't answer his question, he just stared at the photo in his hand. The one that showed seven or so people gathered round the ice block. "This is the only shot they have of her. She wasn't on any of the tapes." He looked at Lars. "How long was she at your camp for?"

"_Three days._" Said Lars, once Windows had translated for him. "_Edvard called in some biologists to help examine it._"

"But why would they call in Americans?" Said Childs. "If we found an alien body, we wouldn't call in Norwegians."

"We have got hold of an alien body." Said Palmer. "The government probably sent her to wreck the Norwegians' work. Keep everything covered up. She just let this thing loose by mistake."

"I think we've heard enough of your theories." Gary groaned. Their base had several non-Norwegians there anyway. There's no reason they couldn't have called her in if she could do the job."

"But how do we know she is who she says she is?" Said Blair. "She shouldn't have survived that long in the cold."

Before they could delve any deeper, Nauls interrupted them. "Which of you's disrespecting a man by tossing his dirty drawers in the kitchen trash can? From now on, I want my kitchen clean, alright, germ free!" He dumped a pair of shredded long johns onto the pinball machine.

Lars peered at them for a moment before realising what they reminded him of. When the thing had taken over Karl, it had shredded his clothes to ribbons. Now it must have taken over somebody here. He stood up and shouted to the people assembled there.

"He says this thing... I can't find a word there, "rips", I guess. Your clothes when it takes you over. That must mean It's still... something."

"If it had taken one of us over, someone would have noticed." Said Bennings. "Even if it can change shape, how could it have our memories?"

"That's what I need to find out." Said Blair.

"Are you serious?" Bennings laughed.

"We can't just ignore this thing." Said Blair, as he made his way out.

"She burnt up one of those things in the other vehicle." Said Norris. "I'm sure she's fine."

"Lars does have a point." Said Fuchs. "He knows what we're dealing with better than any of us. What if it is impersonalising one of us?"

"What are you suggesting?" Said Macready. "We burn the place to the ground to root this thing out? Let's sleep on it. Sort this out in the morning."

Lars looked around at the group. His warning had certainly increased the worried looks on the Americans' faces, but this was a concept they were struggling to get their heads around. None of them had seen a doppelganger walking round camp, acting normally, right up to the moment she'd split open and transformed into some demonic monster.

The Norwegian made an excuse and headed for the nearest storeroom. Sometime later, he had two bottles, filled with fuel, hidden in the inside pockets of his jacket. He then made his way to the only other person in the base who was prepared for what was coming.

Stepping into Kate's room, she looked initially pleased to see him. But then a look of worry crossed her face. Lars opened his mouth to show that his fillings were still there and she visibly relaxed.

Lars pulled out a bottle of fuel and a flare and handed them to her. She nodded in silent understanding, before hiding them under her bed sheets. This thing would attack again. If the crew of Outpost 31 weren't prepared, they'd need to be.

* * *

Blair had never thought he'd need to use this program again. It was a system used by virus research centres to project the potential threat of an epidemic. He'd spent the last few hours programming in the way the creature's cells seemed to operate, as well as all the other necessary variables. Now it was ready to calculate.

He heard yet another person knocking on the door, but ignored them. Instead reading off the screen as is said, _Probability that one or more personnel may be infected by intruder organism: 75%._

He sighed. Given several factors he hadn't been able to program, he'd add at least another 15% on top.

"Blair?" Fuchs called through the door. "I've been reading your notebooks... Look, I think we may be in danger. If you've found anything out about this thing, we really need to know!"

Blair keyed in some more information. Another message flashed up. _Projection: If the organism ever reaches a populated area: Whole world population infected 27,000 hours after first contact._

That was all he needed to know. He reached into the draw and pulled out a gun.

* * *

The moment he saw Lars approaching, Fuchs took a step back. That was good. Paranoia is to be encouraged when something really is out to get you. If he could just educe some paranoia from the others, it might just save some lives. It was why he'd spent so much time looking for the biologist, in the hope that he might have identified the danger.

"Blair?" Lars asked, pointing to the door.

Fuchs nodded, then mimed locking the door and rattled the handle to illustrate his point. He pointed to a point on his watch three hours earlier than where they were.

"_Get him out._" Said Lars, miming reaching over and yanking something away.

Fuchs nodded and went to find Macready.

Lars tried hammering on the door itself. Knowing that Blair would only understand him if the thing had got to him, he shouted, "_If you're one of them, hiding won't save you. You'll burn in Hell, like the others._"

He spotted his translator walking through an adjoining corridor and went to him. "_I need you to talk to Blair. Let him know that he has to show us what he's found soon."_

Windows rolled his eyes. Between radioing for help, moving alien carcases to a storeroom and translating for a Norwegian who never ran out of things to say, it would be a miracle if he ever got a chance to sleep. "_No. Working now. I_..." mimed turning a lock. "_the things in... store room."_

Lars went wide eyed. "_You mean you haven't incinerated them!_" He didn't really understand the details, but he knew Kate had been really insistent that not one cell could survive.

"Er, _no._"

"_Where are they?_" Said Lars.

Windows led him to the store room where he and Bennings had stashed the things a few minutes ago. But when they got there, they found the meteorologist being held by a mass of tentacles, extending from the split-face thing.

"Holy shit." Said Windows, who promptly dropped the keys and ran.

Lars, meanwhile, let loose on the siren. If this didn't show them how much danger they were in, nothing would. He closed the door and waited for the Americans to gather.

Macready, Windows and Fuchs were the first to arrive. But upon stepping into the room, they found the chair Bennings had occupied bare and a window smashed. Mac quickly put two and two together and they ran outside, where Bennings was staggering through the snow.

Windows ran to help him, but Macready tackled him to the ground, as everybody in the base, minus Blair and Kate, gathered around.

Bennings looked up at them, apparently fine, but then raised his hands, which were now composed of deformed, mutilated stumps. He opened his mouth as if to talk, but all that came out was a hideous screaming sound, like nothing on Earth can make.

As the Americans stared at this Bennings creature in horror, Lars calmly walked up, assembling his Molotov cocktail in his hands. He flung the bottle, smashing it over Bennings-thing and lighting the creature up. Macready poured a kerosene barrel over it to fuel the flames.

* * *

The moment she'd heard the siren, Kate had got up and staggered over to the window. She stood and watched as the others torched the creature that had once been Bennings, dug a pit for it and all the other carcases and torched the lot. It was hard to believe that less than a week ago, she'd been analysing skeletons in a museum. And her life hadn't revolved around a constant battle with a shape-shifting monster.

She was becoming light headed from the effort of standing, but that was the least of her problems right now. She had to get out and help the others.

She had very nearly finished pulling on the clean clothes that Copper had left for her, borrowed from Fuchs, who was the most similar sized, when she heard a knock at the door.

"Who are you?" She said.

"Blair." Said the man walking in.

"Listen, could you tell the others to gather together? I need to tell them everything that happened."

Blair didn't respond, he just pulled out a gun. "Come with me."


	4. History Repeats

**Chapter 4: History Repeats**

Macready and Lars were busy shovelling the last few bits of snow on top of the thing's ashes. Though he'd kept his distance from the Norwegian, Mac was finding him useful, since he knew how to operate the heavy equipment just as well as him. Despite the language barrier, they'd spent the last half an hour or so coordinating their efforts through gestures and mimes as they incinerated the thing's remains as thoroughly as possible.

Finally, it was done. As Mac was clearing up the gear, Fuchs approached. "I can't find Blair. Lars has gone to look check on Kate. Windows is in the radio room, still trying to get through. All the others are in the rec room."

"Right." Mac nodded. "You go ahead, I'll be right in."

Macready was climbing into the snowplough when he noticed it. The tarpaulin covering his helicopter was loose. He went in to see if anyone else had been inside and found that the interior was a shambles, with the entire control panel ripped apart. Whoever had done this couldn't have done more damage if they'd let off a small bomb in there.

As he pondered this, he heard a loud bang coming from the main building. Together with everyone else in the base, he ran for the sound.

He found most of the group cowering by the door to the radio room. Inside, Blair was swinging an axe and smashing one piece of delicate and irreplaceable machinery after another. In the corner, Windows was cowering with a large bruise on his head, while Kate was sprawled next to him.

"He must have dragged her halfway across the base." Said Gary.

"You may think I'm crazy!" Blair was shouting. "That's fine. Most of you don't know what we're dealing with. But I damn well do!" He smashed several more servers as he shouted.

"He smashed up the chopper pretty good. Childs, go see if he got to the tractor. And where's that Swede?"

Kate tried to pick herself up, but her head was spinning."Blair. You've got to relax. We need to work together."

"Shut the hell up!" Blair shouted at her. "I can see what you are, even if no one else can. Reckon if I put a few bullets through her you'll all see!"

Kate found the strength the struggle to her feet. "Blair, listen to me..." But Blair swung the axe at her, she leapt back, but still felt the axe scratch her nose. The effort of trying to dodge was as much as she could take before she fell to the ground again.

"He smashed up the tractor too." Said Childs. "And he's killed the rest of the dogs."

Suddenly aghast, Clark rushed to the kennel.

"Childs." Said Mac. "Go round to the map room door and talk to him. Norris, get a table from the lab."

Childs did as instructed. Once he got there, however, he found Lars already waiting there. Lars stepped out ahead, shouting "_Get away from her! She'll be needed."_

Blair spun round "You brought this thing here!" He roared at Lars and fired madly at him, missing by inches. It was lucky, for the Norwegian, that Blair had never fired a gun in his life.

Childs stepped forward and tried to talk Blair down, while Lars tried to shout to Windows and Kate to kick Blair's ankles, though neither of them were in a fit state to do so.

Blair swung the axe back to whack Kate with. Fortunately, Macready chose that moment to charge in with a table to catch the axe. Everyone charged forward at once at this point and the whole room descended into a whirl of fists and kicks. By the end of it, Blair was crumpled and groaning on the floor.

* * *

As the room they'd locked Lars in was still missing a door, and they weren't keen to keep Blair in the building, they led him out to the tool shed, boarding up the windows and doors as heavily as they could in the circumstances. They left Blair there with several tins of food and a bottle of vodka, and nailed him in.

"Well, we're completely cut off now." Said Copper. "All we can do is sit tight and wait for the spring."

"No, we don't wait." Said Macready. "Someone in this camp aint what he appears to be. Right now, it's just one or two of us. By spring, it could be all of us."

"But won't they send someone down when we don't radio in?" Said Kate's voice. They turned to see her limping towards them, still struggling to ignore the pain from her thawing feet.

"You really should be resting." Said Copper.

Kate shook her head "None of you saw what happened at Thule. Lars is in no position to explain it to you. I need to help. Anyway, you didn't answer my question."

"Bases lose contact a lot down here." Said Copper. "They won't send someone to check till the conditions are good."

"And the conditions are never good in winter." Said Macready. "We'll have to root this thing out quickly."

"But what can we do?" Said Childs. "If I was an imitation. A perfect imitation. How would you know if it was really me?"

"I'm sure there are ways to tell." Said Kate. "Copper, is there some sort of test you could do?"

"Well, I've been thinking about a blood serum test." Said Copper. "We take a sample of everybody's blood, mix it with uncontaminated blood and see if there's a reaction. I've got a whole lot of blood in storage."

"Hold on, blood serum test?" Said Kate. The creature would have remembered their attempt to root it out in the same way. If it had any sense (and it did) it would have sabotaged the samples already. "Follow me, quickly."

When they got to the medical centre, her worst fears were confirmed. Blood was seeping through the cracks around the safe. Upon opening it, they found all the blood bags torn open, with the blood spilled everywhere.

"Hold on, was this broken into?" Said Macready.

"No, the lock is undamaged." Said Fuchs. "Someone opened it, closed it and locked it again."

"Well who's got access to it?"

They all turned to stare at Copper. "Guess I'm the only one."

"And I've got the only key." Garry added, and promptly wished he hadn't.

"Would that test have worked?" Said Mac.

"Oh, I think so." Copper nodded.

"Someone else sure as hell thought so." Said Childs.

"Could someone have lifted it off you doc?" Said Mac.

"I don't see how, after I'm done, I return it right away."

"Open your mouth Gary." Said Kate.

"What?"

"It can't replicate fillings so it spits them out. I've seen it before. Copper has fillings. Let's see if you do."

Gary paled and backed away. It was clear to all of them that his teeth were perfectly healthy. "I suppose someone could've lifted it off me..." He offered.

"Bullshit!" Shouted Childs.

"Burn him now!" Shouted Palmer.

"No, I wasn't suggesting that..." Said Kate.

"But why shouldn't we? There's two guys it might have been. One of them's already got proof it wasn't him!"

Lars understood few of the words, but he could see that the situation was spiralling out of control. The thing was constantly one step ahead of them and now, once more, it had simultaneously wrecked their chances of rooting it out and turned everyone against each other.

Keen to find out what was being said, he looked around for his translator, but was surprised to find the radio man backing out of the room. He promptly grabbed his arm. "_Where do you think you're going?_" He growled.

Windows babbled for a few seconds then managed. "_Gary or Copper. He opened the cupboard. Only person with lock. Got to walk from._"

But Lars was concerned by how much more panicked he looked than the others. Even if Gary and Copper were such a threat. But then it clicked as he remembered his meeting with Windows shortly before Bennings was killed. "_You were the last one with his keys!_" The radio man was agitated because he believed he was about to come under suspicion.

Windows struggled against Lars's grip. In his desperation, he forgot to shout in Norwegian. "No, you don't get it, I dropped them, anyone could have picked them up!"

But this only attracted the attention of the others. "I leant him the keys earlier!" Gary remembered.

"Are you going to listen to them? They could be one of those things!" Windows insisted. "Anyone of us could have picked those keys up."

"We aint buying that." Said Childs. "That key ring of yours is always hooked to your belt. He would have realised if someone else handed them back."

Gary looked around the sea of suspicious faces. "Look, I don't know about you all, but I give you my word I did not go near that blood. But, maybe it would be a bit easier if someone else was in charge for a while." He set his magnum down on the table. "Norris, I can't see anyone objecting to you."

Norris gulped. "Gee sorry, but I don't think I'm up to it."

"Maybe I should..." Kate began, but Childs stepped across her.

"Fat chance." Said the mechanic. "I'll take it." But he was soon intercepted by Clark.

Finally Macready took the gun.

* * *

They'd dug a smaller pit in the ground and used it to torch what was left of the blood bags. They'd also poured a good quantity of alcohol around the medical centre.

At Lars's insistence they also burned the dead dogs. Clark was upset, having wanted to give them a decent burial. Lars could sympathise with the man, having found his own dog ripped apart days earlier. But he also didn't want Clark to have to see his dogs rise from the dead and make a break for the Atlantic.

"I know I'm human." Said Macredey. "And if you were all these things then you'd probably just attack me right now. So some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to reveal itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. It'll fight if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. Once it gets to us. Takes us over. Then it has no more enemies left. No one left to kill it. Then it's won. A storm's hitting us in a few hours. We're gonna find out who's who. Clark, Gary and Windows, step away from the others. Copper, dose 'em with morpheme and tie 'em down in the rec room."

"You can't tie me with them!" Windows cried. "_Lars, you won't let them... sleep me. You need me!_"

Lars agreed and stepped forward to protest. Mac held up the flamethrower to him. "The rest of us can go through his Norwegian phrasebook. Try to learn enough to get by." He made several calm hand gestures to Lars, but he still looked annoyed.

Kate stepped up and patted Lars's shoulder. "We're doing what we can." She said, putting on her best "This is for the best." Voice. This seemed to placate the Norwegian.

"Kate." Said Macready. "Anything you'd like to add?"

"Well, I've checked everyone here." She replied. "You, Nauls, Copper, Norris, me and Lars have fillings. We can't burn the others on that alone but we can decide that none of them should have a flamethrower."

"Crock of shit." Said Childs.

Kate rolled her eyes. "Look. I have seen this thing shed artificial parts several times. I know that it can't just infect around them. So stop spreading mistrust like this."

"Right." Said Mac. "Copper and Fuchs, go through Blair's notes and start working on a new test. We've got three flamethrowers. We'll take it in turns with them. But Lars and Kate can't carry them either, just in case. And if any of you see this thing, scream like hell."

Lars didn't like this. Though he couldn't have everything translated for him, he could see that everyone was giving each other the same suspicious looks they'd been saving for him a day ago. And to cap it all off, his only translator apparently couldn't be trusted. Still, from what he'd had translated, he'd probably saved Gary's life. Plus, the filling test had kept Copper from suspicion so now he'd be useful in catching this thing. He just hoped anything he could come up with would be soon.


	5. Blackout

**Chapter 5: Blackout.**

"I'm going to hide this tape when I'm done with it." Said Macready. "If none of us make it, at least there'll be some record. The storm's been hitting us hard for 2 days now and we've still got nothing to go on. This thing rips through your clothes when it takes you over. Nauls found some shredded long johns, but they could be anybody's. Nobody trusts anybody now. And we're all very tired." Deciding that he sounded too emotional, he rewound the tape a bit and hit record again. "The survivors from the Norwegian camp, Kate and Lars, Have told us everything that happened there. This thing... is learning. Every time we catch it, it learns a bit more about how to evade us. We can only hope that we can find a way faster than it can. There's nothing more we can do. Just wait. RJ Macready, US helicopter pilot. Outpost 31."

* * *

In the lab, Mac found Copper and Fuchs working a new test from opposite ends of the room. Each had a Molotov within arm's reach in case the other proved hostile. Lars had insisted that everyone carry round an incendiary device at all times. It would mean arming the things, but at least they could take it out when they saw it.

"Found anything yet?" Said Macready.

"We've had one or two ideas." Said Copper. "It would help if we had some alien cells, 'cos we don't really know how they behave microscopically."

"I've had a thought." Said Fuchs. "If a small particle of this thing is enough to assimilate an entire organism, then everyone should prepare their own meals. And I suggest we only eat out of cans."

"Alright." Macready shrugged.

"He made his way to the rec room, where Palmer was looking through Windows's Norwegian phrasebook. Lars had been trying to teach most of them some of his language for several days, with mixed results.

"Hei dreettseekk." Said Palmer as he stepped in.

Mac frowned at him. "Yeah, I looked up the rude words too."

"It said hei drittsekk." Lars corrected him. He'd been trying to learn English at the same time. Their initial hostility towards him had abated somewhat now that everyone was under suspicion.

"Have you worked out how to say "Sorry for knocking you out." In Norwegian?" Said Macready.

"Yeah." Said Palmer. "Here it is." He handed Mac a piece of paper.

The pilot took it and blindly read out "_You're a very beautiful man._"

Lars and Palmer quickly burst out laughing, much to Mac's irritation.

The mood abruptly shifted as all the lights in the place went out. There followed a lot of thumping and confusion as everyone rushed to get away from the others, despite Mac's repeated calls for everyone to keep still. After a minute or so fumbling in the dark, he finally got the base flame of the flamethrower lit and used it to locate the flashlight he'd dumped in one of the cupboards.

By the time he could look around, he saw that the room had emptied out. Lars and Palmer had vanished, while Gary and Windows had escaped from the couch. Only he and Norris were still there.

"Where are the other two?" He advanced on Clark.

"Gone." Clark said groggily. "I'm still here aren't I?"

* * *

"Who goes there?" Fuchs called to the figure passing by the door. He tried to follow, but Copper followed after him.

"Are you nuts?" Said Copper. "You don't just go off after these creatures."

"But I think that was Blair." Said Fuchs.

"Tell the others later. We need to hide somewhere."

The approach of footsteps added some incentive and the two of them docked into a room on their left.

* * *

Windows had abruptly been shaken out of his stupor by the sudden lack of a weight to his right. The morphene and the lack of sleep made thinking difficult but he was aware that Garry had escaped and would probably have adverse plans for him. He also felt his own ropes hanging looser and franticly wriggled his way out, before hurrying down the corridor. No particular idea where he was going, just a desperation to run.

It began to dawn on him that he was suddenly in much more danger than he had been before. He was on his own, in the dark, with no-one around should it attack him and no weapons.

He practically walked into the wall at the end of the long corridor, before spinning to the left. He was fast running out of corridor.

"_Windows, where are you going?_" Someone called. He spun round to see a large hairy figure silhouetted behind him.

"Lars, is that you?" He approached the man cautiously.

"_Windows, I need your help, You can't just..._" The statement ended there as Windows got close. He abruptly felt a stabbing sensation in his belly, followed by a burning as something was forcibly injected into him. He cried in pain briefly before his mouth was covered.

But he screamed long enough for Copper and Fuchs to hear. They rushed out of their hiding place to find the creature just starting to assimilate their radio man.

"Hey!" Copper shouted, lighting his Molotov.

The creature saw them. It promptly withdrew its tentacle and ran before the doctor could get a chance to throw.

Windows collapsed, writhing in agony as the thing cells churned up his insides.

Fuchs rushed up to him. "What happened?"

"Lars." Windows groaned. "He called me over. He's one of them."

"But what did he say?" Said Fuchs.

"DOES IT MATTER?" Windows shouted. "HELP ME!"

"Stand back." Said Copper. "Nothing we can do for him."

"YOU BASTARDS!" Windows screamed, as Fuchs moved away. That was the last thing he had time to say before Copper smashed a bottle of flaming alcohol over him and he burst into flame.

* * *

Nauls heard the scuffle from the kitchen and rushed off to find Macready. He found him and Childs just descending the steps down to the basement.

"Someone's got attacked." He said. "I think I heard them say it was Lars."

"Right. Childs, stay here and have a look at the generator. Nauls, show me."

The fire had attracted others' attention too. Footsteps were converging from all directions. Fuchs peered at the nearest as it approached. As it stepped into the light, he saw that it was Lars, saying something about Gary. "Stop there!" Shouted Fuchs.

Lars halted, looking confused for a moment. When Fuchs lit his Molotov, the Norwegian put two and two together.

As Fuchs tossed the Molotov, Lars leapt into the lab and made a dash for the far door. The flames put up a temporary barrier between himself and the Americans, allowing him to get away.

Within a few minutes, the rest of the camp, minus Childs and Blair, had gathered around window's smouldering remains. They quickly sprayed everything with the fire extinguishers, before it could do too much damage.

"It was Lars." Said Copper.

"Why attack Windows?" Said Nauls.

"He was probably the first guy it found." Said Macready. "He didn't know you guys were watching."

"No, that's not possible." Said Kate. "He's been helping us."

"Maybe that's what he wanted us to think."

"But what about his fillings?" Kate insisted.

"Maybe it's worked out a way around it. Maybe he darkened his teeth at some point. Maybe it got to him some time in the last couple of days. I don't care. Nauls and Copper both heard him attacking Windows. If he wants to negotiate, he'll have to do it fast."

"Hey, are we gonna stand and talk about him or are we gonna kill him!" Said Palmer.

"It's too dangerous to search for him in the dark." Said Macready.

"But we can't just let him run around." Said Kate. "He could sabotage something else."

Macready was impressed. He'd half expected her to determinately ignore all the evidence against Lars, like one of those idiots in the zombie movies who try to talk their friends down, even after they've been turned. "There's enough of us to guard. Palmer and Fuchs, you take Windows outside and burn him properly. Copper, You guard the lab, make sure it can't wreck our equipment. Nauls, guard the food stores. Kate, follow me."

"How's the frostbite?" He said as they headed down the corridor.

"Better." Said Kate. "Still hurts but it's not my biggest problem."

They made their way down to the basement. There, they met Childs, coming up the stairs.

"Generators fine." He said. "That's why the heaters are still on. It must be the fuses. They're upstairs."

"Has anyone else come down here?" Said Macready.

Childs shrugged. "The generator's loud. If they were quiet enough..."

"Well get on with repairs, we'll check." He didn't want to risk the thing trying to take them from below down here.

If outpost 31 was dark, the basement was another thing entirely. The main room was easy enough to sweep with their flashlights. But at one end stood a storage room, comprised of a rough collection of shelves, which the crew had been using as a dumping ground for anything of little salvageable value. The net result was that anyone attempting to make their way through there would have to pick their way through a maze of junk.

"You in there you Swedish bastard?" Shouted Macready.

"He's not Swedish Mac, he's Norwegian." Said Kate.

"Whatever he is, I'm going to look for him. You stay here Burn him if he tries to get past you."

Kate did as he said, watching as he disappeared off into the shadows, sweeping the area for any shape shifting aliens.

Just then, she heard a noise, much closer than Macready was Not wanting to be snuck up on, she lit her Molotov stepped forward to shine a light on it, but struggled to remember where the noise had come from.

"_Take it fucking easy._" Said a voice behind her. She spun round to see Lars stood, with a lit Molotov in one hand. With the other, he tried to make some calming hand gestures.

Kate didn't drop her weapon. With so much rotten wood around, neither of them dared use incendiaries, but it felt comforting to hold them. Plus it meant that any attempt to kill the other person with other means would likely cause them to smash the bottle anyway and start a fire that would take out half the base from below.

Lars opened his mouth wide to remind her why she should trust him.

Kate just shook her head.

"_Kate._" He pleaded. "_You know you can trust me. Please._" He knew it was futile, having seen so many people attempt the same tone with her. And he didn't speak her language. But she was much more reasonable than the others. "_I went after Gary. I never went near Windows. You have to believe me!_" Maybe if he could keep talking civilly, her mind may come around on its own.

His words meant nothing to her, but she decided to tell him where she stood anyway. "It's hard to deny two separate witnesses." She saw behind him that Mac had looped around to sneak up on Lars. Spotting the Molotov in his hand, Macready ducked back to find something."I'm sorry but I can't play favourites right now."

But Lars spotted the movements in her eyes and spun around, just as Macready sprayed him and his cocktail with the contents of the fire extinguisher.

The cloud disorientated Lars, but he had just enough presence of mind to duck, as Mac swung the extinguisher itself at him. From his position, he barrelled himself into Macready's legs, sending the American to the ground himself.

Macready was trying to reach his gun, not so much to kill Lars-thing as just to disorientate it long enough for him to get away. But Lars had grabbed the gun himself and each were trying to wrench it from the other's grasp. Finally, as Lars grabbed his wrist and tried banging his hands against the floor, Mac let go at just the right moment to send the gun clattering away into the darkness. "Kate, knock him out!" Macready roared as they continued to grapple on the floor.

Kate grabbed a spade from a stack. She rushed over to the fighting men and whacked Lars several times but he was moving so fast she couldn't line up a good hit to the head. "Hold him steady!" She shouted.

Each man, meanwhile, was furiously trying to use all the moves their respective military training had shown them. Jabbing at the windpipe. Sticking your thumb in their eye. Kneeing their groin. But they were each yet to find a move the other couldn't intercept.

Finally, Mac managed to get a foot under Lars's torso and kinked out as hard as he could, throwing Lars off him and onto his back.

As he fell, he caught a fleeting glimpse of someone charging at him and kicked out hard, catching what turned out to be Kate in the chest, winding her. She dropped the spade and staggered after Macready, who was making a run for the centre of the room, from where he could burn Lars should he try to get out.

Knowing that he'd be trapped unless he moved fast, Lars grabbed the spade and ran after the pilot. As he wasn't weighed down by several kilos of flamethrower, he was able to catch up just as Mac was turning round and smack the pilot in the face with the spade, knocking him out cold.

At this point, Kate staggered out of the junk room, still gasping for air.

Kate saw him rush over, a look of concern in his eyes. He began to ask her something in Norwegian, but abruptly stopped as he got close. His eyes widened and he doubled back to where Macready was.

"Lars, what are you doing?" Said Kate.

"_Stay back!_" Shouted Lars, grabbing the torch of the flamethrower from the ground. "_And don't pretend you can't understand me. I had a look in your mouth. Kate had fillings_."

"Wha..." Kate ran her tongue over her newly healthy teeth. "_That's right. I almost forgot, I've been trying to think like her so much. This thing scratched my ankle when it caught me in the ship. Assimilation must have taken a day or so. It's actually ironic. We spent all that time checking the others for fillings, you never thought to check me. I guess pretending to be helpful helped convince you."_

Even when they both knew what she was, she still spoke so much like Kate. Even pausing and stammering where she would have.

"_How did you convince them I was infected?"_

"_I heard someone coming in the dark and decided I should pretend to be you when I attacked._" She'd stretched herself out to take Griggs's form, with some extra hair, and done his best impression of Lars's voice. In the dark, the frightened Americans couldn't tell the difference.

"_Why are you doing this?_" Said Lars. "_What do you want?_"

"_It wouldn't matter if I told you."_ Said Kate. "_You've got no reason to trust us. And vice versa. Whatever happens, only one species is getting out of here alive. I'd rather kill you then wait for you to burn me._" She noticed something and smiled. "_You'd have burnt me already if you hadn't damaged the flamethrower._"

The fuel pipe had come loose from the main tank during the fight. Lars was standing there unarmed and this gave Kate a chance to ignite her Molotov once more. He was no use for assimilation, since the camp was already trying to kill him anyway.

But as she raised her arm to throw Lars pulled the trigger anyway. A burst of flame hit her, from the fuel left in the pipe. It was too brief to catch, but it startled her enough that her throw went wild and smashed harmlessly into the steps below Lars as he took off up them. It also created a barrier between the two of them, so she couldn't pursue him.

On the ground, Macready was beginning to stir. For a second, she thought about assimilating him, but then she remembered the dynamite he'd been keeping up his sleeve. The slightest hint of infection and he'd blow them both to pieces. Instead, she decided to keep up the pretence. With Lars's translator gone, it would be even harder for him to explain things to the others. "I tried to burn him but he ran off! We need to get those fires out!" She said.

"Right." Said the pilot. "Extinguishers over here." As he showed her, he realised that the fuel line had come loose. "You handle it. I need to make repairs."

Kate put the fire out then looked him up and down. "Any scratches anywhere?"

"No. Why?"

"I'd've thought he'd try to assimilate you."

"There wouldn't be a lot of point in that." Said Macready. "The others would notice that my fillings are gone. All he could do was try to kill me outright."

Macready was smart. Kate knew she, or one of the other things, would have to deal with him soon if they were to win this.

**Author's notes: I'm not sure if things can get winded. I'm guessing they would at least pretend to, since we've seen it imitate a heart attack.**


	6. The Thorn In Its Side

**Chapter 6: The Thorn In Its Side**

It took another 30 minutes of darkness before Childs managed to get the lights back on. Since Lars hadn't appeared again in that time, the group concluded that he'd taken ground somewhere and wouldn't be out for a while. In the meantime, they'd gathered in the rec room to get organised.

One thing that had turned up in the intervening time was Gary. Norris had been left in the rec room to guard Clark but had heard mumbling coming from a cupboard down the hall. He'd followed to find the former commander curled up inside.

"I panicked." Gary explained, as they tied him to the couch again, more securely this time.

Copper was gathering everyone round a table to show them something he'd worked out. He held up a chunk of tin foil from the kitchen. "This is aluminium, which has a pretty low melting temperature." He dropped the chunk into a steel dish, which he held with tongs, before heating the foil with a small blowtorch. It soon began to melt. "Now, once I've got enough, I simply pour it into a mould, or a tooth cavity." There was a dent in the table, where Clark had accidentally jabbed it with his penknife some weeks before. Copper illustrated his theory by pouring the molten aluminium in. The liquid formed and solidified, taking the shape of the hole. "And now it's indistinguishable from a proper filling."

Kate watched with some interest. She certainly hadn't thought of this, but she wondered if any of the other infected people had. Frustratingly, she had no means of finding out. Though she had all the memories of the Things that had come before her, she didn't have the memories of the piece of the creature that had branched off in the form of a dog. That meant she couldn't know who it had infected before the dog-thing got burnt. She hoped that watching the remaining humans trying to work it out would give her some clue so they could get organised.

"So, what you're saying is, this whole fillings test was pointless." Said Childs. "Which sort of puts you in trouble, don't it?"

"I'm well aware of that." Copper shrugged. But we were all in danger from this."

Childs didn't look convinced.

"Why would he disprove its own innocence if he was infected?" Said Fuchs.

"To spread more suspicion." Said Childs.

"It doesn't make the test completely useless." Said Copper. "Tooth fillings leave a rough finish when you pour them. Your dentist usually files them down. But we don't have the right equipment. You'd have to spend an hour or so doing it or it would come out jagged. Since we're all watching each other, I don't think any of us had the time."

"We should check everyone again." Said Kate. "Make sure all none of you have jagged fillings. Copper, let's have a look." Once more, she went around the group, inspecting their teeth. "They're all fine. Which means that if any of you are infected, you must have been infected within the first couple of days of the dog coming in. That's probably when it got to Lars."

Once again, her helpfulness had distracted the others from the fact that no one had checked her teeth. When she'd first arrived, she'd planned to pretend she'd never had fillings. Lars's survival had upset that plan. She was just glad he couldn't interfere any more.

"Which puts us right back to, Copper could easily be one of them." Said Childs.

"Now look here, I've been nothing but helpful!" Snapped Copper.

"But so was Lars." Said Kate.

"Doc had plenty of chances to kill me while we were working in the lab." Said Fuchs. "We need to trust him if we're gonna get through this."

"But then shouldn't we burn Gary?" Said Clark. "I mean, if it wasn't Windows who got to the blood and you're not gonna suspect Copper..."

"Ok, that's enough!" Shouted Macready. "We'll deal with Gary and Copper later. For now, there's a crazy Swede running round and he's already tried to kill me once. Now, since he's not poked his head up since, he's probably hiding some place."

"There's another problem." Said Fuchs. "I think I saw Blair in the dark. He might be sneaking out of the tool shed."

"We should pay him a visit then." Said Mac. "Fuchs, you come with me and Nauls. We'll search for Lars outside too. Childs, Kate and Palmer, you check for him inside. Norris and Copper, stay here. We all meet back here in 20 minutes regardless. And everyone watch whoever you're with."

"I should take that." Said Childs, indicating Nauls's flamethrower. "Since he could be one of those things now."

Kate followed Child's search party out the rec room. Perhaps it was a good thing that Lars was still alive. It would mean that the others' paranoia would turn outwards towards him, rather than inwards. No one would suspect her for a while. And prehaps she could use the confusion to catch a couple of them.

* * *

They wouldn't have to go far to find Lars as it turned out. The Norwegian was huddled behind the desk in Gary's office. He'd been scribbling diagrams on a drawing he'd found in a drawer, hoping it would absolve him. The only problem was getting someone to pay attention long enough to look at them.

Lars was cursing the moment he'd led them to rescue that girl from the snowcat, though he took a crumb of comfort in the thought that she would otherwise have been left to freeze and been defrosted by some other hapless rescue team who would have even less idea about how to deal with her.

He heard footsteps approaching and hurried over to the keyhole to have a look. He watched as Childs's group approached and mentally prepared himself to make some desperate last stand. He hadn't had much opportunity to re-arm himself when he'd been in hiding.

They stoped at the fork in the corridor, directly opposite from Gary's door. Fortunately, the group didn't come into the door ahead of them first. Instead, he watched as Childs said Palmer's name, gesturing down the corridor to their right. He then led Kate to their left.

Knowing this may be the only opportunity he'd get, Lars carefully slid the door open and made his way across the hall and back towards the long corridor.

Glancing to his right, Lars was alarmed to see the back of Kate disappearing into the storeroom. That meant that Childs had led her in. All it would take was a minute for her to clamp her hand over his mouth. But he couldn't warn the mechanic without being chased through the station.

He spotted a pipe overhead, which ran along the ceiling. Perfect. He raised the pencil he'd been using and used it to whack on the pipe, sending echoes out from it. He then hurried away and ducked into a room to his right.

* * *

Childs heard the echoes from the pipes behind him and spun round.

Kate, who'd been reaching for his face, put her hand down before he could notice.

Amongst the crew, banging on the pipes was the unofficial means of getting someone's attention. Perhaps Palmer or Copper needed help?

"Come on." He and Kate hurried back to the rec room. "Did you bang on the pipes?"

"No." Said Copper. "But I think I heard someone run past a second ago."

Palmer had returned from the kennel. "No sign of him there."

"Then he's somewhere that way." Said Kate, pointing.

"We should fan out. I'll go through the rooms on the left. Palmer, go through the ones on the right. Kate, stay in the main corridor. We'll sweep this place in a line."

Lars peered through a crack in the door to the kitchen. He'd hoped to find a glass bottle, but it seemed most of them had already been taken by the Americans. He watched as the search party fanned out. That was good. Kate-thing couldn't get anybody when they were far apart.

He thought for a moment, as he took a knife from a rack. All he had to do was stab her and the thing would have to reveal itself, or else get burnt as a precaution. But that was assuming Kate didn't kill him first. Or else set Palmer and Childs on him.

He needed to find something to burn her with. And soon. Just then, he thought of Macready's shack. The Pilot was a heavy drinker, perhaps he could find some glass bottles there. A couple of Molotovs would be all it would take.

He hurried away from the Americans and out into the snow.

* * *

Minutes later, Childs had swept the main building. Having concluded that Lars had fled the building, he led his group back to the rec room.

"We need to seal off the outside doors." Said Kate. "We'll leave one open for Macready, but guard it. That way we trap Lars outside. Let it freeze to death."

"Didn't it survive inside a block of ice?" Said Copper.

"We can dig it up and burn it when we're safe." Said Kate. "At least frozen, it'll give us some time to catch the other things. Palmer, go and tell Macready what we're doing."

* * *

Macready was busy going along the walls of the tool shed looking for any way Blair might have got out. The biologist himself had still been talking gibberish so it was no good asking.

"I can't find anything." He said. "Nauls, have you found anything?"

"Nothing here!" Shouted the cook. "Fuchs, you sure that was Blair you saw?"

"Pretty sure." Fuchs shouted back. "I suppose, I could have seen someone else."

"We'll have to keep an eye out, in case he gets away again." Said Mac.

As he said this, the three of them spotted the figure of Palmer approaching. "Lars is outside somewhere. We're sealing off the outside doors." Said Palmer. "We'll be leaving the left entrance open."

"Right." Said Mac. "Nauls, go and help them. Tell them we'll be in in a bit."

"Where are we going?" Said Fuchs.

"To my shack. When I left yesterday, I turned the light off."

* * *

**Author's notes: I should probably explain that I'm using the maps from the Outpost 31 website for reference.**


	7. Logic

**Chapter 7: Logic**

Macready and Fuchs very carefully eased the door to his shack open. As the biologist stepped in, a large pink object came at him from the side. Fuchs screamed and whacked it several times, before a particularly hard blow knocked it across the room. It turned out, he'd got in a fight with Mac's inflatable woman.

They looked around. Lars clearly wasn't in here now. But there was clear evidence that something had been there. The whole shack was in a mess and part of the roof had been torn off, leaving anything loose to be blown about.

"We should head back." Said Fuchs.

"Hold on, there's a few things I wanna grab first." Said Macready, as he went to light his oil heater. A few things turned out to be the bulk of his booze supply. "That thing's nicked the empty bottles. Why would it do that?" He muttered.

As the pilot counted his remaining alcohol supply and shovelled it into a rucksack, Fuchs sat down at his desk. There were some notes there, which the pilot had paper weighted down. Each one contained some diagrams he'd been making in an attempt to logically deduce what times the creature could have got to certain people and who would have to be infected for it to work. Most of Outpost 31's staff had been working on the same idea for two days, but each logical deduction had always brought them to the conclusion that everyone was infected, so they'd given up.

But one sheet was in a different handwriting from everything else. Taking a closer look, Fuchs saw several notes scribbled down in Norwegian. He realised that Lars must have been here, and left this behind.

The sheet showed a map of Outpost 31's layout, on which Lars had drawn a lot of arrows. At first, it wasn't clear what they were supposed to illustrate, until he spotted an arrow leading down the long corridor, labelled "Windows". The line ended at a tombstone Lars had drawn at the spot Windows had died. He realised this map showed roughly where everyone had been when the lights went out.

Following the line labelled "Lars", it led out of the rec room, then branched into two. One solid line travelling into the sleeping quarters and circling round for a bit. The other, dotted, carried on, following Windows's line, but halted as it passed by the arrows labelled Copper and Fuchs, where he'd drawn an x and a sketch of two sets of boots on a floor.

To one side, he'd drawn a crude sketch of a woman with tentacles sprouting from her torso and claws for hands. Next to it, he'd written "Kate, hate". Finally, he'd sketched an eye, with a dotted line connecting it to a set of teeth.

Looking back at the map, Kate's and Child's arrows began in the record room in the top right corner. Neither Fuchs nor Lars could have known this for certain, but it was a fair assumption since the crew had been taking it in turns in there, going through the video records, both theirs and the Norwegians', in the hope of spotting some behavioural difference that would give them a clue who was infected. Naturally, her's and Childs's lines went in separate directions. She headed into the hallway on the far right, ducked into the radio room and came out again to follow Windows to the tombstone.

An idea began to form in Fuch's mind, as he pondered the significance of these diagrams. He was about to talk to Macready about it when the pilot spoke first. "That bastard Swede took my chess computer!"

"Your what?" Said Fuchs.

Macready pointed to an empty space on his desk. "For playing chess. Stupid thing never worked anyway. You'd have thought all that stuff I poured on the circuits would've taught that bitch a lesson.'

Fuchs decided that Macready wasn't the best person to talk to about his idea. "Should we get going?"

"You'll need to carry these." Macready handed him a very heavy bag, which Fuchs spent a minute struggling to put on.

Fortunately, neither of them thought to look on the roof in all the time they were there. Or else they might have spotted a depression from where Lars was lying up there, using the slight slant as shelter against the wind.

Hearing the door shut, he lowered himself back into the shack, brushed the snow off himself and leaned against the oil burner for a couple of minutes.

He didn't know if Macready and Fuchs had seen the drawings or not. Nor if they'd had any effect on them.

A quick look at the drawings confirmed his hopes. There was a new arrow on his map, labelled "Lars." It led from the shack to the tool shed, and from there to the left entrance. At said entrance, the American had written 11:30. Lars guessed that was the time they would arrange to meet him there. He looked at his watch. It was now 10:30. Apparently, he was supposed to visit Blair in the intervening time. Hopefully, the warnings about Kate would stop her doing more damage while he was gone.

* * *

Back in the main building, the crew were scattered at each door, barricading them as thoroughly as they could. Kate-thing saw this as a chance to bring a few more over to her side.

She was in luck. One of the men had gone to board up a door down the end of a hallway, while the others were down the far end of the building, and he'd put his Molotov down while he worked.

Kate crept up behind him, sweating acid from her right palm in preparation, while forming her left arm into a sword, made of bone, so she could simply kill him if he tried anything clever.

She reached round and clamped her hand over his mouth. She couldn't infect through the skin so she burned it away, ready to fuse herself to his flesh.

To her surprise, a crunching sound came from the man's skull and a mouth opened up in the back of his head. "I'm already infected, alright?"

Kate withdrew her hand as quickly as she could. "Sorry. I had no way of knowing. Do you know who else is infected?"

"I know who slipped something in my food. I know the dog infected him. But I don't know if either of them infected anyone else."

They could easily have exchanged this information by forming into one temporarily, but there was too much risk of getting caught. Even talking was risky. Besides, it was useful to have two independent minds sometimes. Otherwise there was no-one to discuss ideas with.

"Once things settle down, meet me in the records room." She said.

* * *

It took longer than expected, but everyone was back in the rec room, still with no Lars in sight. The only other absence was Childs, who was stood guarding the entrance.

"Ok." Said Macready. "I'm pretty sure we've seen the last of Lars. Now we need to sort out who else is a thing."

"You mean like them?" Palmer pointed to Copper and Gary in turn.

"Not like that. All we're doing is going round in circles accusing each other. We need to get that test sorted. And since every one of you is a suspect, I'd say we should have two people working, keep an eye on each other. That means keep the doc free." Noticing that Palmer was about to object again, he added. "And someone else can guard both of them. We'll take it in turns. Guard the entrance and the lab in shifts."

* * *

Palmer was taking a turn standing by the door. But the man had taken a break to use the bathroom. This gave Fuchs the chance to raise the point he'd pondered back in Macready's shack. "When the lights went out, and we heard someone hurrying down the hall, how many sets of footsteps would you say there were?"

Copper thought hard for a moment. "One, I think."

"Yeah, I'd say that too. If Lars was following Windows, he'd have to have moved fast. Then we'd have heard him 'cos he'd have had to have got past us."

Copper pondered. "Have you told Mac that?"

"No." He took a breath. "He'd never agree to my idea. Lars made some diagrams. There's only one person who could have got to him without getting past us. And I know how we can prove they're infected."

"Then do it."

"I don't want them to know we're on to it. If we poke around in their mouth, it'll probably bite us. Also, I've been thinking... What if we tried talking to it?"

"I hope you're not suggesting negotiating. That would be like a gazelle trying to negotiate with a lion. It's got nothing to bargain with.

"But we don't know that, since no one's ever tried." Said Fuchs. "At the very least, we could find out a bit more about this thing, give us a clue to finding out who else is infected. We're getting nowhere now. Come on, it had to be worth a try."

Copper thought for a moment. "Meanwhile, Lars freezes out there."

"I directed him to the tool shed. He can shelter there. He's tough enough to handle Blair. Look, in the worst case, we burn Kate and tell the others so they can bring Lars back in."

"It's Kate who's infected then?"

Fuchs swore in his head. "Yes. Do you agree to my idea or not?"

"Alright." Said Copper. He watched as Palmer returned, a slightly dazed look and a smell of weed showed what else he'd been doing in the bathroom. "Palmer, you look a bit tired. Why don't you get Kate to take over for a bit? There's some things I want to ask her about anyway."

* * *

Lars trudged through the snow towards the tool shed. He wasn't sure whether the Americans had directed him here to take shelter or to check on Blair. Of course, there was always the possibility that one of them was infected and this was a trap. He lit one of the Molotovs he'd assembled in Macready's shack, just in case.

One thing he didn't expect was to slide open the window and find the room empty. He looked round the door, but it was still boarded up. He walked round the walls and checked carefully for some sign of disturbance. He saw from the almost-filled-in footprints that other people had been here recently, presumably Macready's party.

Then he found it. A large sheet of wood rested against the lower section of the wall. It wasn't attached in any way, just held in place by a small snowdrift, which had obviously been shovelled there. The drift just failed to bury the plank. Pulling it out a few centimetres, he saw that it covered a hole in the wall, large enough to crawl through.

He was about to crawl through himself when the whole ambush idea resurfaced. The plank wasn't that hard to spot. Unless Macready's party had done a shoddy job, one of them must have been infected. Now he had even more reason to try and get back to base.

* * *

**Authors Notes: Since the dog-thing in this scenario was distracted by its attempts to get to Lars, the butterfly effect dictates that it might have infected some different people from those it did in the film. To find out who, simply keep reading.**


	8. Confrontation

**Chapter 8: Confrontation**

"You wanted to talk?" Said Kate.

"Yeah." Said Copper. "We were wondering, since you've seen more if this thing than any of us, do you have any idea what it wants, why it's attacking us?"

Kate thought for a moment, then decided to respond the way her human self would. "It wants us all dead. That's all we really need to know."

"But it might help if we knew a bit more about the way it behaves." Said Fuchs. "You can tell a lot about a creature from how it survives, how it hunts, how it evades predators. If we knew what its end goal was, we might work something out."

"Really?" Said Kate. "Like what?"

"Well, the most popular theory is that it's just an intelligent virus, doing what all viruses do. Looking for a way to spread." Copper watched her face carefully as he said this, trying to read her response, but could tell nothing.

"But if that's the case, what would it do once everything on earth's under its control?" Said Fuchs.

"Probably build some more spaceships and head off to other worlds." Said Kate. She noticed that the men were both trying to get a look in her mouth. Somehow, they must have realised that no-one had checked her before. "Course, there is the possibility that it's not attacking at all. We're attacking it."

"But then, why doesn't it try and talk to us? Ask for help." Said Fuchs. "We could try and help it get home."

"Would it trust anyone though?" Said Kate. "And would anyone trust it? They've only got each other's word to go on, and their whole species is at stake."

"I'd guess not." Said Copper. "Since it's killed several of us already. No-one's particularly keen to help it right now."

"Look, if you woke up to find a group of ants clawing at you, you'd probably kill them without a second's thought."

"That's all I need to hear." Said Childs, stepping through the doorway. "All of you, get in the rec room. Mac's just fetching something.

* * *

Holding his incendiaries at the ready, Lars cautiously made his way through the entrance. He was surprised to find Macready stood there, having expected Fuchs.

When Mac had noticed the graphs Lars had drawn on his desk, he'd pointedly ignored them. That was until he'd found the shredded clothes in his oil burner. This thing had tried to frame him. That had made it seem more likely that it could be trying to frame Lars in the same way. After a word with the others, he'd discovered that none of them had checked her teeth either. They'd formed a plan.

Lars found several of the others stood around Mac, aiming various weapons at him.

"I'm sure you understand we're taking a lot on faith here." Said Mac. Since he was sure Lars knew this, he didn't need to worry about language barriers. "If we're wrong about this, Nauls torches you." He pointed back and forth between the Norwegian and the flamethrower to make his point. "Where's Blair?"

Lars kept his Molotov at the ready. Nonetheless, he didn't think Macready was infected. In answer to his question, he shrugged. "Blair. Out." He couldn't describe the hole in the wall in English so he mimed smashing through something.

Macready realised the same thing Lars had. "One of you two must have found that hole. Why didn't you say anything?" He said to Nauls.

"How do we know it wasn't you? Or he's lying." Said Nauls.

"Ok. From now on, no-one gets out of my sight." Said Mac. "There's too much sneaking around. Now let's go deal with Kate."

They made their way to the rec room, all of them were keeping their distance for one reason or another.

In the centre of the room, Kate was stood, with Childs keeping her at flamethrower point.

"I heard her saying something about human beings just being ants to this thing." He said.

But Kate was focused on Lars "What's he here for? You can't trust him!"

"He's accusing you of framing him." Said Macready. "Thought I could bring you together to argue it out."

"Why would I frame him?" Said Kate.

"Well let's look at your teeth and find out."

"Are you accusing me?"

"You've been telling us you had fillings all this time. Let's have a look."

Kate could feel her cover slipping away. If she let them check, they'd torch her in seconds. And Macready would probably be clever enough to keep his distance so she couldn't even bite him. Fortunately, she'd made a plan with the other things for these circumstances, and was forming these human muscles into much tougher fibres should she have to fight. For now, all she had to do was stall. "I was afraid you'd question how I survived. I had to give you reason to trust me."

"You're scraping the barrel." Said Macready.

"Why would I tell you about the fillings at all if I was infected?" Said Kate.

"Everyone here's claimed something like that."

"Mac, you can't just burn her over this!" Said Palmer.

"And why are we trusting Lars?" Said Gary.

"His claims made more sense when I found she'd tried the same thing twice. Snuck into my shack to plant things."

"I haven't been near your shack." Said Kate. "Ask anybody. Mac, this is crazy!"

Lars was listening in. He could understand English better than he could speak it. At least enough to gain the gist of this conversation. But there was a very simple way he could resolve this. He steadily advanced on her. "_Kate, I have a knife. You can confess now or you can let me stab you, and they'll all see what you are. I don't care if they kill me as well."_

Kate didn't dare respond. Or else, the others would know she'd understood him. She just tried to use a look imply that he was bluffing.

But Lars stepped right up to her, whipped the knife from his pocket and stabbed at her chest. Her chest promptly opened in a large mouth, but he was able to whip his hand back before she could bite.

Lars tried to dodge backwards, but Kate grabbed the back of his jacket in her right hand.

"I was a prisoner on the alien ship!" She shouted quickly, as Lars squirmed for freedom. "I didn't know you were sentient. I was lost and frightened!"

Macready whipped out his gun and fired three shots into her arm, while Lars whacked it with his knife, forcing her to drop him, though she gave him a good kick to send him headlong into the bar. Macready, meanwhile, was aiming his flamethrower.

Fuchs stepped forward quickly. "Whoa, Mac, we need to talk to her!"

"What can we learn from it, except a quicker way to die!" Said Childs.

"I can tell you who the other things are!" Kate shouted. "Just promise not to kill me."

"I don't trust it for a second." Said Macready. "Out of the way Fuchs."

"We should probably hear it out." Said Copper.

"I'm not stepping aside." Said Fuchs.

"Why're you so damn anxious to help her?" Said Childs.

"Tell us who the others are, and where Blair is, or we burn you now." Said Macready.

"But then you'll just torch me straight away!" She shouted back.

The whole room descended into chaos, with everyone shouting at once. No one noticed as one of the things stepped away from everyone else. With everyone gathered together and still arguing like this, all it would take was one burst of flame and the humans would be finished, while the things could get away in the confusion. That had been Kate's plan.

"Norris, get back in here!" Macready shouted.

"I need air." Norris insisted.

"Remember how no-one gets out of my sight?" He turned back to Fucks. "Blair got out, and you or Nauls must have found out how. That means one of you is infected. Now do you wanna burn with her or not?"

Out the corner of her eye, Kate spotted movement from Lars. The Norwegian was stirring. He stood up and began to light the Molotov he was holding, prepared to burn her. Looking round the room, she realised that Lars was blocking one entrance. Childs, the second. And her thing was near the third. If her thing attacked now, Lars would burn it and block her in. He also had a rack of spirit bottles just next to him to lob at her. They'd all die, while he, and Childs at least, would get away.

"It's Nauls!" Kate shouted. "He's infected! I set him to kill you all!"

What happened next happened very quickly. First the group spun round to see Nauls stood with his flamethrower at the ready. He hesitated for a moment, before raising it to fire. That was the last mistake he made. Macready quickly torched the man. Nauls screamed that unearthly scream and charged forward, drawing even more attention from the others.

Only Lars paid attention to Kate, throwing his Molotov at her. But she grabbed a startled Fuchs and shoved him into the path. The bottle smashed over him, lighting him up. She shoved him aside and charged, grabbing the knife Lars had dropped from the floor.

He grabbed a bottle from the bar and whacked the knife from her hands. She simply sprouted claws from her arms and a massive fanged mouth in her face.

Lars ducked away from it, running round the back of the bar, before vaulting over and running over to where the others were.

Not liking her chances if she stayed any longer, Kate fled the room.

"Everybody out, it's gonna blow!" Macready was shouting, looking at the tank of fuel on Nauls-thing's back.

He went to run himself, but suddenly heard Gary shouting. "Hey, you can't just leave us tied to this fucking couch!"

"Shit." Said Mac realiseing he'd have to help. He grabbed a chair and charged Nauls-thing, who promptly brought his flamethrower to aim at the pilot, only for Lars to smash a second chair over it from the side, disorientating it. The pilot and the Norwegian caught it together between their chairs' legs and shoved it backwards towards the bathroom stall that was built into the side of the room.

Macready tossed a stick of dynamite in with it and slammed the door. The flimsy door did little to contain the blast, but they were at least able to leap out the way of most of the debris. Only Norris was significantly hurt, with a medium sized splinter lodged in his leg.

Fuchs had been rolling on the floor in an effort to put out the flames. Palmer solved that problem by spraying him with a fire extinguisher, before putting out the rest of the fires in the room. The biologist was burnt and blistered all over.

"Someone help me move him to the sick bay." Said Copper.

* * *

They carried the man through and placed him down on a gurney, where Copper began to cover him in bandages.

"Do you suppose there was any truth in what it was saying?" Said Palmer. "About fighting for survival."

"I don't know." Said Macready. "It's just what is would say to lie its way out of there. Doesn't matter anyway. It would never convince all of us to trust it. One way or another, this is always gonna end with a fight to the death."

Fuchs tried to speak, but all that came out was a whisper, followed by a cough.

"Will he be alright?" Said Garry.

"Hopefully. Really depends whether he inhaled fire or not." Said Copper.

"I hope he survives so I can kill him." Said Childs. "We should have killed her straight off. We didn't learn a damn thing back there."

"Yeah we did." Said Macready. "Kate and Nauls tried to kill each other back there. These things will happily compete against each other if they're in danger."

"So?" Said Garry.

"That every piece of this creature is an individual animal, with it's own personality. And a built in desire to protect itself."

"Like that thing in the kennel." Said Clark. "It kept on coming after we chopped it up."

"Right. And that's how we're gonna beat it."

* * *

Kate had found her way into the crawl space above the radio room and punched her way out through the roof. It wouldn't be too difficult finding Blair. Circumstances hadn't worked out as she'd hoped. But there was no situation she couldn't work to her advantage.

She looked at her left hand, which was missing a finger, which she'd left in the corridors. She didn't like breaking bits off, since the fragments tended to be dumber and weaker than the whole. But she'd left it with clear instructions. All it had to do was assimilate one of them and it could join forces with the other remaining imposter. The humans couldn't chase after them and her and Blair at once. One of them would find a way to destroy them.

* * *

**Author's Notes: If I was at Outpost 31, I might have tried negotiating at some point (in absence of a better idea). I don't believe it would end well, but it's interesting to think about.**

**The idea of the thing attacking each other in order to survive comes from Who Goes There, in which it's theorized that they each inherit the personality of the person they've taken over, complete with a will to survive, though presumably without the related moral values.**

**axel100 has raised some good questions. To answer some of them, 1) Kate-thing told them about the filling test because she knew someone would eventually question how she managed to survive. She needed to throw out some helpful suggestions to gain their trust. (Though the idea that she's still partly human at that point also works) 2) Lars and the Americans can't just leave notes for each other for the simple reason that they can't speak each other's languages. (Granted they've picked up a bit, but it's harder to write than to understand foreign dialects.)**

**Blimey, this is getting complicated.**


	9. Into Endgame

**Chapter 9: Into Endgame:**

With some protest, Macready had convinced everyone to draw a sample of their blood. He'd also wiped Kate's blood off Lars's knife and into a petri dish.

Macready stood by the door so that he could watch the others and the main corridor at the same time. He wanted to tie everyone down, but he didn't have the time. He heated a copper wire red-hot with his flamethrower. "Copper, stand by with the alcohol." He held the wire over Kate-thing's blood sample. "Let's see if I'm right." He touched the wire to the blood. The blood screeched and reared up, causing him to drop the dish. Fortunately, Copper was quick to pour the pure alcohol over it, killing it.

"Right, let's try the others." Said Mac. "I'll go first."

He touched the needle to the sample of his own blood. Nothing happened.

"Ok, there's not a lot of space in here. Childs, step into the next room first." Begrudgingly, Childs complied. Macready re-heated the needle and tried with Childs's blood. It proved he was human. "Right, get over here and watch the others."

"Now we see if we were right about Lars or not." Said Macready, waving him into the next room. He heated the needle and touched it to the Norwegian's blood. Once more nothing happened. "I guess we owe Sweden an apology later. Ok, stand there." He pointed to the lab door, which led into the hall.

He looked at the others and decided to ask the least suspicious people first. "Norris, you're up." The geologist limped into the lab, still clutching his leg wound, as Macready heated the wire once more and touched it to the blood. The blood remained still.

"Palmer now." Palmer followed his guide into the next room and stood and watched as Macready heated the wire once more and touched it to the blood. The sample reared up and screeched. Macready and Lars wasted no time in torching Palmer, before slamming the doors in his face and throwing their weight against them.

Palmer-thing screeched and thrashed at the door, smashing holes and missing Lars by centimetres. Realising that they wouldn't hold it for long, both men withdrew. Fortunately, by then, the others had had time to retreat and the creature ignored Fuchs as it went after the main group.

They hurriedly backed away before it. Fortunately, the fire was burning through rapidly. A few shots from Macready's gun and a few whacks with a fire axe stopped it in its tracks.

"_Well that was surprisingly easy._"Said Lars.

However, the group was so focussed on Palmer that they failed to notice a finger, scuttling in through the door to the lab. It scuttled at the nearest leg several times, but they would each step away before it could get to them. Instead, it scuttled over to the gurney and up the side. As the group returned it paused, suspended halfway up the table leg.

After clearing Gary too, Macready sent him, Childs, and Lars to search for Kate-thing. No-one questioned why the pilot was still giving the orders since Gary was so far out of his depth anyway.

* * *

The human form had its uses, but it was also frustratingly inefficient at surviving in the cold. Kate had reached a happy medium by sprouting fur, copied from the dog. In this kind of whether, it would only give her a few more hours before she froze, but that could make all the difference.

She battled through the storm as she made her way to the tool shed and crawled in through the side hole. Just as Macready had said, the room was deserted. But it didn't take much searching to find some loose floorboards.

She lifted them up and lowered herself down to find an underground chamber, which Blair had converted to a workshop. In the centre stood a flying saucer, roughly the size of a car. It was a lot more modest than the sleek and majestic ship that had brought it to Earth, and certainly not capable of interstellar travel, but it would suffice to get one thing off the continent. Even the middle of the sea would be an improvement, at least there was life there.

To one side, Blair was working on the antigrav generators. Or rather it had once been Blair. Now, only the head and neck still resembled the biologist. The thing had repeatedly sped up its work by sprouting extra arms, many longer and thinner, others shorter and tougher, and some with extra opposable digits. Blair-thing now resembled a head perched on top of a mutant octopus.

"So this is why you've been disappearing?" She said. "But people have noticed. They'll be down here soon."

"You were supposed to be distracting them." Said Blair, as he used one of his longer arms to grab his vodka bottle from a counter.

"I was doing a good job until you tried to frame Macready. I was trying something similar, but you just made him realise something was up. We've all been fighting them on our own little island. We'll have to work together if we're going to beat them. Now, how long do you think it'll take to finish here?"

"Not sure. A few hours maybe. How long till they get here?"

"That depends how long Palmer stays hidden, but it won't be not long enough." Said Kate. "We need to come up with a plan of some kind."

* * *

Macready had finished the test. As it turned out, none of them were infected now. Childs and Lars, meanwhile had swept the building to the door once more. "There's a breeze in the radio room." Childs explained. "She must have punched out through the roof."

"Can she get back in that way?"

"Probably not. It's harder to get in than get out. Unless she uses that hole again."

"Right." Said Macready. "Barricade the doors to the radio room. Gary, Lars, we're goanna check out the tool shed. Norris, stay here. If Kate of Blair tries to get back in here without us, burn them."

After all that paranoia and sneaking around, it was almost a relief to march out together and confront that thing face to face.

* * *

With everyone otherwise engaged, Fuchs had been left to lie in the infirmary, heavily bandaged.

No one was watching as the finger-thing scuttled up onto the top of the gurney and over towards its target. Fuchs himself didn't feel it until it crawled up and on to his chest.

He tried to bat it off but he was too weak. He tried to scream, but all that came out his parched throat was a hoarse gasp.

The thing burrowed through his chest, down to his heart.

* * *

Lars and Gary hacked through the boards used to seal the shed shut. It didn't take many hits to free the door. Of course, they found the room deserted.

They found the loose floorboards and lifted them up to reveal Blair's underground chamber.

"I guess this explains all that missing equipment." Said Macready. "A few more hours and Blair would be on his way to New York."

Macready had six sticks of dynamite with him, but decided three would do. He tied them together and lit it up, only to realise that Lars was trying to gain his attention. "_Listen."_ He said.

The other two did. A faint rumbling could be heard over the wind. And it was getting louder. They took a look out the door and saw what appeared to be a small abominable snowman driving the station's smaller bulldozer at them. They only saw it coming for a second, before it collided with the front of the shed, smashing both the walls and the roof to pieces. The three men instinctively scattered to avoid the falling debris.

Macready felt the dynamite slip from his hand as he tumbled across the snow. Seconds later, he found himself at the bottom of the slope, with the others lost in the haze. Not sure where his explosives had landed, he simply ran towards the faint glow from the station's searchlights.

Kate stepped down from the cab and looked around. As she'd hoped, the group had dispersed. Only one remained, crawling out from under the wreckage. She promptly grabbed Gary round the face. "I was hoping for one of the stronger guys. I guess you'll have to..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the dynamite exploded to the left of where she was standing, knocking her sideways for a second. As she hauled herself and Gary up, she heard a low crumbling and watched as the ground indented itself in front of her. The blast had created a tremor that had caved in Balir's underground workshop. The spaceship was now effectively buried.

* * *

Lars too saw the blast. Some of the wreckage from the shed had caught fire and now lay in the new crater, directly above Balir's spaceship.

The Norwegian had an idea lit a flare, and looked around, trying to remember where he'd last seen it. He guessed correctly and located the station's mechanical digger, not far from the entrance. With no time for fineness, he pried open the main access panel with the axe, before yanking the fuel line free, through mostly brute force, and feeling his way back towards the base.

Macready was also just arriving, but not Gary. No-one was in any doubt as to why.

"They're building some sort of space ship out there." Macready explained. "We've buried it for now but they'll dig it out eventually."

Lars held up the fuel line. "Dig. Machine. Fuel."

Macready thought for a moment, then grinned. The thing would never be able to dig the ship out with spades in this weather. They'd need that digger running. Now they had something it would want. It would have to come to them. "Childs, board up the main door, but make sure the job's only half done."

"What?" Said several of them.

"It'll look like we're trying to keep it out. Really, we want it to come through this way. We'll meet it in the entrance, torch it."

Lars watched the pilot's unwitting gestures and saw a flaw in what he seemed to be planning. "No." He explained the problem in Norwegian, whilst theatrically miming firing a flamethrower at the door, before making a whooshing sound and waving his arms over the others.

"I think what Lassie's trying to say," said Childs, "is that we probably shouldn't meet something that big in a confined space. Particularly if we're trying to burn it."

"We'll meet it back there then." Said Macready, pointing to the first fork in the corridors. "Get three of us to attack it, one on each side. Spread some oil around here to burn it quicker."

"But if it gets a good look at us, it'll think twice." Said Copper.

"Not if it chases one of us. Childs, listen from the door. When it hits the first time, run. I'll stand in Gary's office. Lars can go in the main corridor." He spoke slowly and pointed to show the Norwegian where he was supposed to go.

Lars pointed at Copper and Clark. "_You two should go down the far end of the building."_ He pointed. "_Just in case it tries anything else_." He pointed at Norris. "_You go to the basement. Guard it._" He pointed down.

"You want me downstairs?" Said Norris.

"You're not a lot of use up here." Said Macready. "This way, the thing will have to get through all of us before it gets to you. Take the fuel line down there with you."

* * *

Assimilating the heart first had allowed the thing to spread through Fuchs's body much faster. But he was still partly human and in no position to attack. Nonetheless, he listened to Macready's plan through a crack in the door and thought for a means of interfering.

* * *

Blair had assimilated most of the matter they'd got from Gary and now resembled some multi-headed, multi-limbed monster. Kate too, was looking less and less human, growing as many claws and stingers as she could with the body mass present. She could have joined up with the Blair/Gary monster, but her new plan depended on being small and maintaining these human hands.

Kate had exchanged memories with the monster, rather than shout over the wind. It didn't look good. Blair-thing had tried to get back in by unwittingly leading the guard away from their point at the entrance. But Norris had been too injured to go out in the snow after him.

Now, they were looking at the disabled digger and realised that they would be unable to dig their ship out. With every entrance boarded and guarded, they would be trapped outside to freeze solid.

"It's just what they want." Said Kate. "To hold us here, till they can dig us up and burn us to ashes." She sighed. "Whether we freeze or not, we can't let them live through this."

The monster-thing grew a new mouth. "But they'll be expecting us to come in through the front door. They'll have laid a trap."

"Good." Said Kate. "If my plan's worked, our inside man can attack them from behind. Also, I think I've found another way in. Just one of us needs to get to the generator and they're done for."

* * *

"_How long?_" Said Lars.

"30 minutes." Said Macready, who was getting used to guessing what Lars was asking.

"_Feels longer._" Lars muttered. They'd been sitting, waiting for the thing to come for ages now. They imagined it was letting them stew in fear, except that it wouldn't have time. It was planning something big, they could tell.

Finally, Childs heard a scraping. "It's here."

"Wait a few seconds longer." Said Macready.

The door thumped and crunched several times before a clawed arm finally burst through, missing Childs by an inch.


	10. Battle For The Planet

**Chapter 10: Battle For The Planet:**

"Ok Childs, run!" Shouted Macready, as he and Lars took aim. Lars felt good to have a flamethrower on his back once more.

Childs ran, two seconds before the thing burst through the door behind him.

That was the cue Fuchs had been waiting for. He stepped out of his hiding place in a storage room and swung the axe he was holding at Lars. It was only by a hair's breadth that Macready spotted him in the corner of his eye and shouted out to warn Lars.

He spun round, spotted the figure there and instinctively whacked it in the shins. Fuchs toppled down on top of him.

With Fuchs-thing still weak, and wrapped in bandages, he was in no position to do any assimilating. Lars lifted him off the ground and made to fling him into the rec room, but both of them were promptly knocked sideways and through the doorway as an explosion smashed a hole in the roof above.

They had forgotten the dynamite Mac hadn't needed in the tool shed. Kate had found it in the wreckage and used it to blast her way in. She now dropped through the hole, with an already lit stick in her hand, which she threw at Macready. He ducked, but the dynamite landed in the room behind him.

Macready knew better than to throw it back so he fled the room, and promptly collided with Childs, sending them both tumbling down the corridor to their left. By the time they'd got up, the Blair monster was right behind them. The only thing that stopped it grabbing them straight away was the blast that shot out the doorway, disorientating it for a second, whilst also blasting a dog-sized chunk off its back.

Macready hit it with a burst of flame, but it had cleared the oil spill now and filled most of the corridor widthways. Macready's blast merely lit up a third of it. And it kept coming.

* * *

Copper and Clark had heard the noise and came running from the far entrances. They each had a lit Molotov in each hand.

The chunk that had blasted off the Blair monster's back saw them and came at them Slowly at first, but faster and faster as it sprouted more legs. It scrambled off the floor, up a wall and across the ceiling. All the while charging forward.

The two men flung a Molotov each at it. Both missed and lit up the corridor behind it. Copper ran into the sick bay and took aim at the door, hoping to get it as it came in. But the thing ignored him and went after Clark, who ran for the far end.

But the thing was faster and soon dropped down onto his head, where it began to burn its way into his skull.

Fortunately, Clark had just enough presence of mind to bring his second Molotov up and smash it over the creature, lighting both of them up before it could finish.

* * *

Macready and Childs ran like mad, shoving barrels and cupboards in its path to slow it down.

They reached the kennel with Childs in the lead. He kept running down the main corridor, but Macready jumped into the dogs' pen. Once there, he fired again. This time, aiming for the wooden walls floors, walls and ceilings round the monster. Childs, meanwhile, flung his Molotov at the thing's body. It thrashed and flailed for a time, but quickly collapsed.

Macready grabbed a fire extinguisher and cleared a path where Childs was. But they were cut off from the rest of the base by flames. "We'll hack through the wall to Gary's office!" Shouted Macready. "The explosion should have weakened it!"

* * *

Lars, meanwhile, was still struggling to throw off the Fuchs-thing. It was stronger than him, but also lighter. He'd tried several attempts to whack it against the walls, but the thing still wouldn't let go. Meanwhile, the tongue was slowly extending out of the bandages, towards Lars's face.

But Lars had got an arm free and grabbed a lamp off the table. He smashed the bulb on the side and jabbed the still sparking end into the thing's tongue. A current ran through its head briefly, causing it to spasm, while Lars wriggled free.

Fuchs grabbed a chunk of wood from the floor and swung at him several times. Lars dodged back, grabbed the end of the couch and shoved it round, tripping the thing up, before torching the thing as it tried to recover.

He left the room burning and returned to the hallway. There were flames in both directions, but no sign of the others. Or of the remaining monster.

* * *

Norris, who was leaning against the wall by the generator saw Kate approaching down the steps, growling and extending her claws. He panicked and tried to fling his Molotovs across the room. They fell short and smashed harmlessly into the ground.

As she charged, delayed only slightly by the burning patches of ground, he did the only thing he could think of and switched off the power to the basement lights, in the hope of losing it in the shadows. He tried to stagger away into the dark, but the uneven ground quickly proved his undoing and he tumbled over. A sharp pain shot up his injured leg and he screamed in agony, alerting the whole base to where he was.

It also alerted Kate. Norris heard footsteps coming his way. He grabbed some shelves and tried to haul himself to his feet. By pure luck, the shelves were unstable and toppled over, striking Kate a glancing blow and granting him a few more moments to crawl into the shadows.

Kate decided to ignore him. She had bigger problems to deal with. Like taking out the generator. She rushed up to it, where she found the fuel line lying where Norris had been standing. Once there, she lit her final stick of dynamite.

"_Don't move another centimetre!_" Shouted Lars's voice, as he shone a light on her.

Kate had chosen to put a long fuse on this dynamite partially to give her time to get away, partially for a situation like this. Before Lars could get in range, she pressed the stick against the top of the generator. "_If you burn me now, you'll set it off._" As she said this, Macready and Childs came down the stairs. "This is your last chance!" She shouted to them. "Drop your weapons and back off!"

"Not gonna happen." Said Macready.

"You can help me get off this planet, or we can all die!" She repeated in Norwegian so Lars could understand.

"I think I speak for everyone when I say, so be it." Said Macready.

"Hold on, I wanna live!" Said Norris.

"You don't know what you're destroying. I know things you couldn't dream of. I can give mankind the stars if you just help me." Said Kate.

"You're asking us to risk the lives of every creature in Earth for the sake of your word." Said Macready. "Fuchs trusted you. Look where that got him. Maybe you are just some cornered animal, but I don't care. Because one way or another, you've killed a lot of my friends tonight."

Lars recognised the word friends. "_You killed my friends too. Now you're pleading for mercy with Kate's voice._"

"_You'll doom yourselves and your planet over some petty revenge?_"

"_I'll see you in hell._"

The fuse was almost gone now. "Last chance!"

"_Which of us is more afraid of dying?_" Said Lars.

Kate knew the answer to that. No one fears death more than one who can live forever. "Well, fuck you too!" She flung the dynamite at them and they all scattered for cover, while Kate ripped some cables from the generator and charged the group. She went for Macready first, who was the closest.

The pilot shot a burst of flame in the vague direction of her footsteps. It missed but she was forced to dodge backwards.

The three of them lit their torches and shone them all around. "Childs, get the lights back on." Said Macready. He stepped back to cover the mechanic as he worked. They all shone their flashlights all round the room, trying to catch the scampering footsteps.

But Kate's wasn't going for them. She made for the stairs, with a mind to lead them into an ambush outside. Unfortunately, her escape coincided with the arrival of Copper at the top of the stairs, shining his light down and raising his Molotov when he spotted her.

She turned to run, but her way was blocked by Macready and Lars. "THIS IS MURDER!" She shouted in both English and Norwegian.

"_This is for Kate._" Said Lars. He and Macready torched her together. They watched her until she collapsed. It was over now. But somehow, this didn't feel like a grand victory.

"Do you suppose we did the right thing?" Said Copper. "We didn't just jump to conclusions about her?"

"We're still alive. The world's safe." Said Childs. "I'd say that's a pretty good result."

"But still..." Copper couldn't think how to finish. "The base upstairs isn't gonna last much longer. Once the fires die down, we need to bring as much of the food as possible down here."

"So now we're gonna hold up in the basement 'till the spring?" Said Norris. "What about the medical supplies?"

"And what if the fire burns through the ceiling?" Said Childs.

"We'll see what we can salvage once the fire's died down. Everything else'll have to be cobbled together." Said Macready. "Do you think we'll make it, doc?"

"There's a chance." He said evasively, clearly neglecting to add "not a good one."

"Well... it could have gone worse." Said Macready.

Out in the snow, and far away from the camp, one last thing, no larger than a fist, was burying itself in the snow. Far away enough that the rescue teams wouldn't find it. But it wouldn't stay buried forever. Even if it had to sleep for 100,000 more years, it would escape.

* * *

**Author's Notes: To answer some further questions. I actually forgot to explain how Kate knows what Blair has been up to in story (and have adjusted it since.) Macready tells Kate that Blair's disappeared and that someone's planted things in his shack. She can put two and two together from that. And from stumbling across his hide out. Blair never tells the other things his plan, as they'll make a more interesting distraction if they don't know about it. He mentions it to Kate out of annoyance.**

**I thought it would be a bit disappointing to give a conclusive answer about what was motivating the thing, and so I've left that point ambiguous.**

**Lots of thanks to the people who posted reviews and suggestions. I really wasn't certain this was going to work when I started.**


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